Page 31 of Forging Bonds: Part Two

“I’m going to try to pull it apart now, okay?” I say. It nods again, and I position myself at the bear trap, wrapping my hands in my jacket to try to protect them as much as I possibly can, even though I know that the spikes are most likely going to go through and pierce my skin. “I am really sorry that this is going to hurt.”

There’s no time to build it up slowly, and I ask my magic to help as I dig my feet into the ground and start to pull the thing apart. It doesn’t budge at all, not even a tiny bit. I frown. I’m not giving up, I can’t give up. This unicorn's life depends on it. I pull harder, feeling the spikes of the trap where I’m gripping it begin to dig into my fingers, slicing them and causing the blood to soak my jacket. I don’t pause, I don’t stop, I keep pulling at it with all my strength.

It finally begins to shift, the teeth moving the most minuscule amount that it can, but it fucking moves.

“It’s moving,” I tell the unicorn, the excitement obvious in my voice.

The volume of the voices rises in warning, and I curse as I hear a stick snap in the surrounding woods.

“Shit.” I look at the unicorn, “I’m not going to be able to get you free before they arrive, but I promise that I will not let them near you.”

I don’t have time to wait to see if it understands me, because three heavily armed mercenaries burst out of the trees. I’m not really surprised that I recognize one of them from the Obsidian Market. It makes sense that they hunt the unicorns themselves rather than send someone else to do it for them. With unicorns being worth as much as they are, the temptation for anyone who would be willing to work with these people would be too great, and they would most likely take it for themselves, rather than accept a percentage.

“Well, well, what do we have here, boys?” one of them says almost predictably.

I roll my eyes as I stand up and position myself between the unicorn and them.

“Looks like a little girl who thinks she can steal what is ours,” another one replies, his eyes trailing over me lecherously.

I don’t react to his obvious perusal. If I show that it bothers me, then it will just give him more pleasure. Men like this are all the same, whether they’re supernaturals or not.

Vile.

“I think I’d like to teach her a lesson, a naked one,” another one says, grabbing his crotch and spitting.

“Oh, gross,” I mutter, pulling a disgusted face.

The men laugh.

“You think we care, we ain’t asking, we intend to take,” the first one says.

The unicorn whinnies in distress, and I hear it try to move behind me.

Glancing over my shoulder at it, I smile, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”

The men once again laugh and move closer to me. Now, at this point, I know that I should be worrying, a normal person would be, especially after what they are threatening. The thing is, they are nothing. They’re weak, and I am so fucking fired up about what they have done to this unicorn and what they intend to do, that they don’t stand a fucking chance.

Out of the corner of my eye I see the one that grabbed his dick move toward me swiftly and the unicorn begins to panic. I know that I said earlier that it makes the guys more nervous when I wink at them in situations like this, but I can’t help but wink at the unicorn who probably understands the gesture about as well as I understand unicorn speak.

Just as the dick grabber reaches me I spin on my heel, calling Asael to me and grin as I watch the brief flash of surprise appear on his features beforehis head drops to the floor with a thud. The other two that came with him just stare at me in utter shock, clearly not expecting me to be capable of killing someone.

“Fuck, it’s that chick off the Choosing,” one of them exclaims, and my eyebrows rise slightly.

Huh, I don’t know why it’s a surprise to me that criminals have watched the Choosing. I mean, everyone has access to it, all they have to do is say a simple incantation, at least that’s what Ribit did so that we could watch it. But it does surprise me that they have recognized me, then again I am the only woman in it.

I rush forward. I really don’t have the time to be thinking about this sort of shit now. My quick movement unfortunately snaps them out of their shock at their friend’s death and they both work together to try to circle around me so that they can attack me from both sides as they draw their swords. There is absolutely no chance that I’m going to allow them to get close to the unicorn though. I know that if one of them manages to get behind me then they will take the opportunity to take off with the unicorn and I will have absolutely no chance of being able to find it again.

I really couldn’t forgive myself if I let them get past me and take the unicorn. The poor creature has been through enough, and I will absolutely not allow it to go through anything else if I can help it. Fortunately for me, I am used to going up against more than one person in a sword fight and so I quickly get my head into the game and within moments I am dodging, weaving, spinning, and stabbing. One of them quickly succumbs to my sword and falls to the floor as dead as the dick grabber. The last one left alive doubles down on his attack and I quickly ask Asael to split so that I can defend myself better. It’s obvious by the slightly erratic movements of the last attacker, that he’s beginning to tire and if I’m being honest with myself so am I.

It's because of this that I don’t block the next swing that’s aimed at me and barely manage to dodge out of the way so that it doesn’t slice my stomach open. Instead of seeing my insides become outsides, I manage to move just enough that it slices along my hip instead and I hiss in pain, but don’t let it distract me, and use his moment of triumph against him as I stab him in the stomach with one sword and then pull it upwards.

Asael is so sharp that it takes barely any effort on my part and as the fucker looks down in shock at his stomach, my other sword swings around and takes off his head, hearing the splash as it lands in the fast-flowing waters of the river. The water will take the head away quickly and it saves me the job of having to separate the head from the body in order to make sure that he doesn’t put himself back together again.

I don’t even wait to see it go. I know that he is dead. Glancing around the clearing, I listen intently, stretching my senses to see if there are any more threats nearby. I don’t pick up on anything, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything nearby. I quickly send Asael away and then turn back to the unicorn.

“Are you okay?” I ask, as I rush over to it. It snorts and looks at me like I’m crazy. Which considering it’s just seen me fight and kill three supernaturals and I’m currently bleeding, might be a fair assessment.

I glance down at my hip, it’s not that bad. I’ll live.

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